


Let Me Count The Ways

by MorpheusPrince



Category: Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Freeform, I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Write This, I have no idea where in time this takes place I'm so sorry, M/M, No Explicit Sexual Content But They Are Said To Be Intimate, Yes I Go With An Explicitly Unapologetically Jewish Billy, but here i am, why am i like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 11:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11713110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorpheusPrince/pseuds/MorpheusPrince
Summary: Teddy Altman loves Billy Kaplan.  But words can’t do it justice for him.  Sure he tries, but they’re just not enough.(Or, gushy love rambling from one enormous superdork about another.  I write 900 words of diabetes fluff because I'm a sucker for this relationship.)(EDIT: Dear god I uploaded the rough draft I'm an idiot.)





	Let Me Count The Ways

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I've got a long, weird, complicated relationship to Young Avengers and Wiccan and Hulkling in particular, so please for give this. I cranked this out in a vague exhausted haze, and it's the first fanfiction I've written in literally 10 years, so please dont be too harsh. If this gets liked, I'm considering writing a second chapter that's the same from Billy's perspective to Teddy.

Teddy Altman loves Billy Kaplan. But words can’t do it justice for him. Sure he tries, but they’re just not enough.  
  
He loves the way that when a song comes on, Billy can’t keep still. When up cranks “Sara Smiles” and his hands and fingers go dancing, twirling through his hair before he even knows what he’s doing, a split instant of serenity spreading across his face. A few dreamy strains of Sixpence None the Richer, and despite himself, despite his adorable shame at his adorable taste for a song as simple and indulgent as “Kiss Me”, his shoulders begin a gentle sway and his lower lip trembles like he wants to sing along. Or be kissed, just like the song implores. Either one would melt his heart again.  
  
Teddy loves the way that when he offers he offers a choice, dinner or a movie, library or the park, Billy will immediately try to do both. He teases him, calls him spoiled, but Teddy understands. He sees it in Billy’s eyes- a hunger, not just for whatever has been offered, but a hunger to know, to do, to be, to get everything he can out of life.  
He knows where the hunger comes from. The years of feeling dead to the world. Feeling so unwanted that Billy believed it was the truth. Of hiding pieces of himself so deep, even he was a stranger to himself. Of feeling out of place even in your own family. The need to make up for lost time, to get all he can out of delicious life.  
  
Sometimes he gets angry when he sees Billy withdraw. Not angry at Billy- frustrated maybe, wishing that he, anyone could do more to bring him back out to his usual self, heart fully on his sleeve, but angry at the world. Angry at the past. Billy, he thinks, is like…. like a god damn garden. Like some beautiful, fertile plot of land that beauty just seems to bloom from. And not only did people miss it, they got a laugh out of plucking that beauty, trying to salt the earth, make sure it won’t come back. These people, these fucking animals, he will not let do more than they already have. He hopes that’s enough to let Billy heal.  
  
Sometimes his anger scares him. He’s come close to hurting people- hurting people he cares about because Billy was in danger. Or even just hurt. He doesn’t like to compare himself to his namesake, but Hulkling sometimes can’t help himself.  
  
In the bedroom, Teddy loves Billy’s sensitivity. Loves the way he showers him with encouragement and praise. He always loves to see Billy open up emotionally, and when they’re together, when they’re touching, he simply can’t hide himself. They fully have each other. No distance, no secrets, no pain.  
  
He’s always curious to learn more about Billy’s culture. Growing up in New York, he was no stranger to Jews on a superficial level (bagels and knishes stood out prominently), but really had no substance behind it. He remembered how moved Mag- Erik. Erik was, having, after all the twists and turns and revelations, a practicing Jew in the family. While keeping tradition, Erik was a declared agnostic, but Teddy would swear Erik saw evidence of God in them being reunited. It amazed him, no matter how weird life got, how Billy drew from his faith. He said once that he liked the way he got his power from words: that the reason that Jews consider reading and writing holy is that the word is the most powerful force known to man. The words created, shaped, defined the world and everything in it.  
More words. He couldn’t deny they were strong. They were the first thing he loved about Billy. His kind, sensitive words. The first glimpse he got of him, beyond the (admittedly gorgeous) superficial attraction. When you can look like anything, you stop caring quite so much what’s on anyone else’s outsides either.  
  
But when it boils down to it, he doesn’t really care why he loves him, what words he had for it. Sure, it’s fun to roll around the concept of Billy in his mind- try to see all his constituent parts. But why would he want to reduce him? Make him a thousand smaller things, when all he needs, what he has, is just one perfect Billy. Not a set of clear eyes and pinchable cheeks (both sets) and tics. A living, breathing, loving, perfectly imperfect but easy to adore Billy.

Teddy wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
